


A Whole Squadron of Sharons

by koalathebear



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-16
Updated: 2013-02-16
Packaged: 2017-11-29 11:15:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/686333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalathebear/pseuds/koalathebear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Apollo & Sharon but not shippy. Oh all right. Maybe just a little.  Based on the deleted scene in <i>Kobol's Last Gleaming 1</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	A Whole Squadron of Sharons

A muscle moved in Apollo's jaw as he stared down at Sharon's ravaged face. The bloody bandage did little to cover the horrifying damage the gunshot had caused. Even more devastating was the hopeless and lost expression in the young pilot's eyes.

"You are lucky to be alive," he found himself saying.

"I know I feel so stupid," Sharon started to say.

"It's like something I would do," Crashdown interrupted, making an attempt at a joke.

"OK let's not get crazy," Sharon said a little limply, appreciating her ECO's lame effort at cheering her up.

"Yeah at least it was just your face," Apollo said, making Crashdown laugh.

The forced levity dissipated almost immediately as Apollo snapped back into CAG-mode.

"Sharon I am short of pilots as it is. Now you're gonna be ok. Doc says you'll have a nasty scar but it should serve as a reminder". 

Apollo was aware that he was coming across as a bit of an asshole but he found that he just couldn't help himself. Staring down into Sharon's injured face was making him feel more upset than he had thought possible.

"Always, _always_ check for a round in the chamber when cleaning your weapon," he told her. "Sharon that is _basic_ ," he said, cursing himself for the intensity in his voice as he reprimanded her. 

Reprimanding a young woman with a gunshot wound in her face.

He pulled himself together with an effort.

"Crashdown you'll be flying with Karma for the next few days," Crashdown nodded but didn't look particularly enthusiastic, the young man was too busy looking in concern at Sharon who simply lay there like a broken doll. 

"And as for you," Apollo said, turning his gaze back to Sharon with an effort. "You take it easy ... get your fill of sickbay chow, and I want to see you back on the flight line". 

Again he found himself wincing at the pompous tone in his voice.

He sounded like such a self-important jerk.

He turned to walk away but then paused, trying to stop himself saying it but found himself saying it anyway. "We need you Boomer. You're a ...." he hesitated and then said it: ".....you're a hell of a pilot, and a good officer".

"Damned straight!" Crashdown agreed emphatically.

"I wish I had a whole squadron of Sharons," Apollo found himself saying, staring down into the dark, dark eyes of his broken lieutenant. 

Broken? 

Why did that word keep coming to mind? She was injured, injured as all of them had been at one time or another. 

She would heal. 

To his horror her huge eyes filled with tears. He had never seen Sharon like this before. She had always been businesslike, efficient and calm. There was nothing he had asked her to do that she had not done.

"Thank you sir," she told him haltingly, her eyes saying much more than she was able to say with her voice. Apollo wanted to say more but the presence of the watchful and anxious Crashdown made him hesitate. 

He paused, gave a slightly disbelieving laugh which bordered on embarrassed at having betrayed so much emotion before a junior officer and then left.

***

Apollo pulled his helmet off. He was exhausted after the night's patrol. It didn't get easier and the hours seemed to get longer and longer with each passing day. It was hard to hang onto hope when each flight was the same as the last. Long, futile and empty.

All he wanted to do was crawl into his rack and let a deathlike sleep consume him.

Then inexorably, without knowing how or why, he found himself walking towards medbay.

***

The pain in her face was almost overpowering. The painkillers weren't working ..... it was like her head was exploding. 

She smiled, seeing Helo and his damned lollypop, grinning back at her over a set of Triad cards. The idiot never realised that she always knew exactly what his hand was from the smile in his eyes. It had been a good day when they had been assigned to one another. When Helo was around, it always felt as though nothing could ever go wrong.

_Deep down she knows she's a cylon. But her conscious mind won't accept it._

Sharon trembled. Tyrol's kiss on her neck, the touch of his hands on her skin, the murmur of his voice against her lips. She knew how much he loved her ... loved ..... 

But now it was all gone ....

_Sometimes I have these dark thoughts._

_Her model is weak. Always has been. But, in the end, she'll carry out her mission._

_I don't know. But I'm afraid I'm gonna hurt someone. Feel like I have to be stopped._

Sharon bit back a sob. She could see Helo standing on Caprica, his eyes filled with a world of regret and sorrow. His eyes told her something that she had never even suspected. The image of his solitary figure had forever been burnt into her memory and her heart.

 _She can't be stopped, she's a cylon._

_Carry out your mission._

Tyrol telling her that it was over. What they had was over. He said he still loved her but did it matter? Sharon couldn't blame him or hate him no matter how much it hurt. 

She now knew of the darkness inside her. There was something evil and insidious, poisoning her slowly. Shadowy memories and commands were clawing their way to the surface, struggling for domination of her soul. Whispers that lapped at the edge of her consciousness made her want to close her fingers around the butt of a sidearm. 

Something was telling her to pull the trigger. 

The darkness was consuming her now.

_Do it_

Sharon's eyes snapped open with a sob.

"Hey - are you ok?" A voice asked from the darkness.

"Captain?" Sharon asked in disbelief. 

Her eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness and she saw him sitting beside the bed, still in his flightsuit, his jaw shadowed with stubble. She had no idea how long he had been sitting there watching over her. 

Her heart pounded. She had no idea what he had heard.

"Are you all right?" He asked her with concern. "You were having a pretty bad dream there ... you were ... crying." He had seen the tears pouring down her cheeks. 

"I'm not, I'm not," she had been whispering. He had debated whether to wake her but hadn't wanted to humiliate her or cause her to be embarrassed so instead he had simply sat and watched over her, making sure that she didn't roll onto her damaged cheek, making sure that she didn't injure herself further.

"Apart from the gunshot wound in my face I'm just fine," she told him and they both gave a weak, half-hearted laugh.

"How long have you been sitting there?" she asked wonderingly.

"Not long".

He was lying.

It had been a couple of hours. He was dead on his feet. He couldn't leave though. Something kept him here. 

"Starbuck stopped by to see you. She said to say hi if you woke up but she'd had enough of the sound of you snoring and was going to enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasted."

"Frak she's a bitch sometimes," Sharon said with a laugh and then winced as the pain stabbed through her face.

"Do you want me to ask Doc Cottle for some more painkillers?" Apollo asked her in concern.

"No, I hate being drugged," she said immediately. 

"Yeah yeah I know. You and Starbuck with your refusal to take stims..... not that you ever really needed them anyway." he started to comment.

"You look really bad," she told him abruptly, noting how tired and blurred his eyes were.

"Boomer, you look _worse_." 

To soften his words, he gave her his usual tight smile, the taut smile that turned the corners of his mouth up slightly but almost never reached his eyes. He'd smiled when she'd found water, that had been a real smile, but his genuine smiles were rare.

He wiped the tears from her cheeks gently and she was startled. "I told you. You were crying in your sleep."

It had been one of the most heart-breaking sounds he had ever heard. Raw, uncontrollable sobs and cries. Like an animal in pain or a lost child. 

She hadn't even looked as if she cared when he had told her that she would be scarred forever. Since when did a girl as beautiful as Sharon not care that she was scarred for life?

Of its own volition, his hand reached down and gripped hers tightly, trying to give her comfort.

"Try to sleep, Sharon." He tried to smile again. "I'll sit right here. I'm not going anywhere. I'll chase the monsters away."

Her eyes were haunted. "No one can do that, sir." her voice made him shiver, a sinister whispering chill sliding over his skin like the caress of a ghost.

"You never used to be such a pessimist," he told her bracingly.

_Do it_

Sharon's breath caught in her lungs and she hissed. Apollo felt her hand twitch convulsively in his and he stared down at her in concern.

"Sharon are you in pain?"

"Yes," she whispered. "I'm in pain. I'm so afraid."

"I'm here, there's no need to be afraid," he told her gently, his voice calm and reassuring. "I'm the CAG, nothing bad happens on my watch."

_By your command_

Sharon's eyes closed and a tear slid down her cheek silently.

***

Apollo didn't realise that he was screaming. The agony in his heart had found release in his voice as he screamed for the doctor, screamed for his father to live. 

The hot blood poured over his hands, sticky and scarlet.

With wild eyes he saw them dragging Sharon towards the door. Her face was twisted with confusion, shock and bewilderment. 

"What's happening?" she demanded. 

She was crying. 

His heart turned cold.

_I'm so afraid._

The frakking bitch had been planning this. She had allowed him to hold her hand while she had planned this.

Whether his father lived or died, there would be a reckoning.

**The End**


End file.
